Badminton was known in ancient times; an early form of sport played in ancient Greece and Egypt. Badminton came from a game called battledore and shuttlecock, in which two players hit a feathered shuttlecock back and forth with tiny rackets. The game was called "Poona" in India during the 18th Century, and British Army Officers stationed there took the Indian version back to England in the 1860's. The new sport was definitively launched in 1873 at the Badminton House, Gloucestershire owned by the Duke of Beaufort. During that time, the game was referred to as "The Game of Badminton," and, the game's official name became Badminton.[2]
Until 1887 the sport was played in England under the rules that prevailed in India. The Bath Badminton Club standardized the rules and made the game applicable to English ideas. The basic regulations were drawn up in 1887.[2] However, in 1893, the Badminton Association of England published the first set of rules according to these regulations, similar to that of today, and officially launched badminton in a house called "Dunbar" at 6 Waverley Grove, Portsmouth, England on September 13 of that year.[3] They also started the All England Open Badminton Championships, the first badminton competition in the world, in 1899.
The Badminton World Federation (BWF) was established in 1934 with Canada, Denmark, England, France, the Netherlands, Ireland, New Zealand, Scotland, and Wales as its founding members. India joined as an affiliate in 1936. The BWF now governs international badminton and develops the sport globally
